Children's Museum and Como Zoo

We went on our First Grade Class Trip to the St. Paul Children's Museum and Como Park Zoo on Wednesday, May 13th! The weather was cloudy and cool, but very comfortable!

Could these smiles be any bigger? Justin and Nick were so excited!

What a great way to spend a birthday! Will wore his crown all day long!

When will we be there? The ride got kind of long for Elizabeth, Emma, and Madison.

Finally, we made it. We listened to instructions in the Big Room at the museum. There were only three main rules - stay with your helper, walk, and have fun!

Each child was assigned to a group of 3-4 kids and an adult, so the groups were free to explore the galleries on their own. This works great, but it was hard for me to get pictures of everyone in the class since I had my own group to watch. Once we split up at the museum, I didn't see some of the kids until we ate lunch! Our volunteers were fantastic, and everyone had a really good time. Creative play is encouraged in every gallery, and the following pictures show just a few of the many activities available.

Corn, anyone?

Vienna prepared a great meal of rice and vegetables.

Hannah, Julia, Madison, and Vienna were wishing this was a real boat!

Nick tried on a hard hat in the construction area.

Sanskar started a building with giant blocks.


It ended up bigger than he is!

Jack and Nick made some recycled paper out of newspaper.

Sam, Jack, and Nick hung out in the construction zone.


Madison prepared a Chinese meal for me!


The grocery store was a popular spot.

Vienna had a lot of mail to deliver.

Chase, Will, and Julia were working on being deejays.

Vienna and Madison were quite the rockers!

Madison, Julia, Hannah, and Vienna made friends with Clifford and Emily Elizabeth.

Sanskar found a great frog puppet...

And Levi made his climb a tree!

After spending almost 2 hours exploring the galleries at the museum, we ate our lunch in the Big Room, packed up everything, and boarded the buses for Como Park, where we again split up in our groups to see all of the animals.

My group thought it would be fun if this was a real turtle.

Grant, Trenton, and Justin found a comfy bench in the rainforest.

The monkeys were "hanging out."

The mother orangatan was taking good care of her new baby.

Ali, Abby, and Kaitlin were watching the sea lions.

This giraffe was actually 15 feet tall!

The zebra looked like he would rather be outside. It was pretty smelly inside!

The lion was relaxing - on a rock?

Several groups met up in the Conservatory. The flowers were beautiful!

We posed for a group shot after our return to Cannon Falls. It started to rain as soon as we got on the bus, but other than a few sprinkles as we walked around the zoo, the weather was very pleasant! The predicted high winds held off until evening - yeah!

Thanks to our great volunteers - Peggy, Emily, Stacy, Marge, Amanda, and Lynn!

Actually, Stacy and Amanda came along on another 1st grade trip with me, but they were only 7 at the time, when they were students in my class! Funny how time flies!

The kids were great on the trip, and I'm sure they all slept well on Wednesday night - I know I did!